One Year of YouTube – Making money from travel

Many start a YouTube channel to make money and making money from YouTube was not my main motive. It has been about a year now that I am regularly post all my travel videos. It is not that I have just started traveling one year back, but I have starting video blogging since December 2017. I have been traveling a lot for year now, but never had thought of making videos and posting it on YouTube or any other similar services. I used to write blogs about travel, the places I visit, restaurants, food and more, but videos, no.

Sharing my 1 year of Vlogging / video blogging / YouTube experiences

I had written a lot about my experiences during this journey (Tips for new YouTubers). As we move forward, try new things, we learn new things or even out thoughts would start changing. The same has happened to me too as far as YouTube is concerned. I used to focus a lot on YouTube SEO, but now I am not much bothered about that. I am now more focused on creating good videos that I love to watch and would want others to watch and enjoy.

YouTube Make Money – Not a way to make quick money

Many youngsters or beginners think that YouTube is a source of big money because they see many vloggers with costly sports cars, mansions, traveling around the world in private jets and so on. You search YouTube, you find tons of videos where people talking about making millions of dollars from YouTube. I agree that many are making millions on YouTube directly or indirectly, but they have reached far ahead and for a person just starting a YouTube channel would take a long time, lot of hard work and luck. Yes luck is also a very important factor.

In this one year, I have not made anything near what I have spend. I have not started this channel as my main source of income. I have been earning online for more than a decade now, so I know that it is not so easy and I am not that lucky too, yes luck is important, but I am sure that consistent hard work gives results, just keep calm and continue working.

Don’t invest much

If you have money and you are passionate about making videos, yes you can spend, like I am doing, but if you are thinking about a business model, then you need do a lot of research and take decisions.

Some tips for travel vloggers

My main YouTube channel is a travel channel. I have got most of the professional gadgets that a YouTuber wish to have like couple of DSLR camera, lenses, drone, tripods, Canon G7X, GoPro, Rode Mics, etc. To carry my stuff, I got many bags, in search of finding the which to carry everything I wanted when I travel. I got some Canon bags, Manfrotto bags, some from Tumi and on and on, but still I am searching for a better bag. Lenses, after one year, I have settled for two lenses which I carry now for most of my travel videos, after buying about 7-8 lenses.

So, if you are going to keep investing you gadgets / tools to shoot and produce your videos, make it more professional, then it is a never ending process.

My Advice to new YouTubers / Video Bloggers / Travel Vloggers

Don’t invest on too much of equipment because, you will never find a single device that can handle all your situations. You may have to shoot something in a windy location where your Canon G7X will have problems with audio, but if you have a Rode shotgun mic or a film maker kit, then you can do it. Your DSLR can take really good shots at low light and you will need a lens with better aperture. I have a Sigma 16-30 which has a 1.8 aperture and work wonder in low light situation, but I cannot use it when I am walking and shooting, for that I use a 10-22 mm wide angle camera and so on.

Minimal gadgets for a travel vlogger

It is very important to travel with minimal things in your bag to make your travel comfortable, but you should not regret that you missed something because you did not carry something. I had big regrets when I decided to carry just my Canon G7X M II for my Guangzhou, China trip in my bag and nothing else. Many times during my video shoots I wished I had my Canon 80 D or my Canon 200D with me, but still I could do some good videos.

My Plans for the coming year and future

I have many travel plans inside and outside India. I am also planning to connect more with people who would want to work with me on things like reviewing their property, interviews, etc which should be related to travel and food industry.

If you have anything in mind that you could do with me, please feel free to contact me

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So to conclude, making money from YouTube, yes possible, but with lots of conditions like hard work, dedication, passion towards work, time and luck.